Questionable mediated effect of police work stress on life satisfaction: A comment on Qiu et al. (2026)
Abstract
Drawing on the covariance matrix reported by Qiu et al., I reassessed the empirical basis of their mediation model linking police work stress to decreased life satisfaction. I demonstrate that the observed covariance structure can be reproduced by a theoretically different latent-variable model that does not rely on the directional mechanism proposed in the original article. In this alternative account, self-reported police work stress, perceived social support, sleep disturbance, and life satisfaction are conceptualized as indicators of a broader construct, core self-evaluation. The results illustrate a broader inferential problem in psychological research: multiple theoretically plausible models may provide equally adequate explanations of the same correlational pattern. Consequently, observational associations alone offer limited grounds for preferring one explanation over competing alternatives. Researchers should therefore routinely evaluate alternative models when drawing inferences about psychological mechanisms from nonexperimental data.
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BibTeX
@misc{sorjonen2026questionable,
title = {{Questionable mediated effect of police work stress on life satisfaction: A comment on Qiu et al. (2026)}},
author = {Kimmo Sorjonen},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/tayhg_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/tayhg_v1/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Questionable mediated effect of police work stress on life satisfaction: A comment on Qiu et al. (2026)
AU - Kimmo Sorjonen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/07
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/tayhg_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/tayhg_v1/
AB - Drawing on the covariance matrix reported by Qiu et al., I reassessed the empirical basis of their mediation model linking police work stress to decreased life satisfaction. I demonstrate that the observed covariance structure can be reproduced by a theoretically different latent-variable model that does not rely on the directional mechanism proposed in the original article. In this alternative account, self-reported police work stress, perceived social support, sleep disturbance, and life satisfaction are conceptualized as indicators of a broader construct, core self-evaluation. The results illustrate a broader inferential problem in psychological research: multiple theoretically plausible models may provide equally adequate explanations of the same correlational pattern. Consequently, observational associations alone offer limited grounds for preferring one explanation over competing alternatives. Researchers should therefore routinely evaluate alternative models when drawing inferences about psychological mechanisms from nonexperimental data.
ER -